West Ham's Sam Allardyce looking for a hero

SEARCH: Allardyce is trying to find the player who could end up saving West Ham's season [ACTION IMAGES/ADAM HOLT]

The Hammers boss has told owners David Gold and David Sullivan he needs cash for a major January signing to make sure the club don’t sink back to the Championship.

They face relegation rivals West Brom at Upton Park today in what even he admits has become a must-win fixture in the battle for survival.

But Allardyce says the whole club will benefit from an injection of quality.

He wants to repeat the dream trick he performed a decade ago when he signed French superstar Djorkaeff to rescue Bolton in their first season after going up.

He said: “If we can have two additions in January, my concern is to make sure they are players who can hit the ground running, jump into the team and deliver from day one what we know has been delivered elsewhere.

“That is a massive task in this transfer window, but we have to try and achieve it.

“It would help if it was somebody with Premier League experience – a top, top player from abroad like a Djorkaeff. He kept me up at Bolton, came in and scored the goals we needed and we stayed up with two or three games to go.

“A player with an impact like that would be important, not just for the team and the results but for everybody at the club.”

“A player with an impact like that would be important, not just for the team and the results but for everybody at the club”

Sam Allardyce

West Ham’s search for a new striker will put a question mark over the long-term future of Carlton Cole, even though he scored against Arsenal in his first start and now has three league goals this term.

He signed a three-month contract in October and has yet to talk about whether he’ll be offered another one.

Cole refused to discuss his future, but said: “It doesn’t make much difference me scoring if we don’t win because that is what matters.

“There is another game coming up and that is the beauty of playing games close together – you can bounce straight back and not dwell on the last game.

“To face West Brom we need to really pull ourselves together and take the positives out of the performance against Arsenal.

“Our confidence isn’t low, but we just need to get the rub of the green.

‘‘We have some experienced players and we have got the grit that is needed in this situation – now we have to show it.”